Note that the following story on umbrellas and U.S. presidents was written in what the writer calls an 'exalted state' where details came to him "as if in a trance, like when Justin Bieber gets near Selena Gomez." We cannot, however, vouch for accuracy.

I've taken a few moments out of my day here to reflect upon the scandal that erupted when a marine held an umbrella over the head of the president, former U.S. President George H.W. Bush that is, not President Obama. Boy oh boy it sure was something back then when all the 'you-know-what' hit the fan over it.

Wasn't it?

Yeah, back in the day, before the internet, the press got a hold of it and big media and small-town media covered it extensively. You see President Bush was part of an official gathering and a marine was told to hold an umbrella over his head in the rain. The president was standing on a mini-platform so that poor marine had to reach his hands up from behind to get the umbrella in place. I'm serious!

Wow. The indignation, from all over the U.S. but in particular from Republicans, who defended the military's honor. "That Bush keeps screwing up," a younger and equally uninformed Rush Limbaugh intoned. "Making a soldier look dumb by having him hold an umbrella over his head? Who does he think he is? A president engaged in conducting state business?

"Oh, yeah. Never mind."

Here's a photo with lots of U.S. Presidents having the military holding umbrellas over their heads. This sort of thing has clearly been going on for far too long!

Memeographs

Sarah Palin and Umbellagate, Bush style

At that time, Sarah Palin was 27-years-old. Quite naturally, argumentative Americans wanted to hear from her, too, so, knowing that her opinion mattered even back then, Palin chimed in, but not with a tweet, something she enjoys using now, because they didn't have tweets in those days (gosh, they didn't have The Tea Party or 'American Idol', either).

No, what Palin did was shout to a neighbor in Wasilla, Alaska, across the fence. "Did you see on the evening news that President Bush had a marine hold an umbrella over his head in the rain?" she called out. "Americans should hold their own umbrellas! True, if I run for office in 2008 I'll have people hold umbrellas for me, too (see here) but I'll make sure it's an aide, not a marine. Marines are for invading foreign countries!"

As noted, there was no Tea Party during Bush Srs. term in office ('89 to '93), for the right-wing contingent of angry Americans hadn't yet formed into a cohesive and loopy unit, but both Michelle Bachman and Newt Gingrich were around at the time. However, though they ranted about it, no one listened because even back then they were considered irrelevant, and ignored.

The Umbrella and the right-wing

The point in looking back like this is to show that the brouhaha that has arisen out of President Obama having marines hold umbrellas over his and the Turkish prime minister's head is not arbitrary. It's about sincerely held values, American values and the values of all countries that hold insignificiant things to be of import, values that the current president just doesn't get.

If it were about say, GOP racism, sore loserism, idiotism, then they'd do stuff like insist he was from Kenya and argue endlessly about his birth certificate or go on about him and an umbrella and a marine without having been upset about a Republican president and an umbrella and a marine. But as we know, the Republicans and the U.S. right-wing, were just as upset about President Bush as they are now about President Obama.

Werent' they?

This opinion article was written by an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily intended to reflect those of DigitalJournal.com